Whether they are chronic or episodic, a landmark study finds the net effect of parental migraine on teens is depression, anxiety, and disappointment.
Family Burden of Migraine: The Adolescent's Perspective
Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study. First study to assess migraine burden from the perspective of the teen of a parent migraineur; web-based survey.
Chronic Parental Migraine Linked with Greater Teen Burden. Episodes of loss of parental support and reverse caregiving ≥4 times in past month were far greater in homes with a parent with chronic migraine (up to 50%) than with episodic migraine (up to 15.3%).
School Suffers in Teens with Parents who have Migraine. Most often reported complaint: It bothers me that parent cannot help with school activities like other parents.
Teen Activities Compromised, CM takes Greatest Toll. Adolescents of parents with chronic migraine were more likely than those of parents with episodic headache to have missed group/socical activities 4 or more times in the past month.
More Anxiety/Headache in Teens with Parental Migraine. More headaches and moderate to severe anxiety were seen in teens of parents with chronic vs episodic migraine while rates of moderate to severe depression were similar in the two groups.
Clinical Implications. The study results show that parental migraine has pervasive impact on teens' biopsychosocial functioning, underscoring the essential need to assess impact on the entire family of a parent's migraine pattern.
Take Home Points. Impact on teens of parental migraine studied across four domains: Parental support, emotional conflict, interference with school, missed activities/events; chronic migraine in a parent confers greater burden across domains than episodic migraine; teens may suffer from anxiety, depression, headaches; conisder migraine in the context of the family system; effective treatment may have indirect benefits.
